[Gnumed-devel] Proposal on Clients

[Ian Haywood]

richard terry wrote:
>MIchael here are some functionality dumps from my
>vb version - note how much 
>nicer the vb graphics are!!!!!
>
>Regards
>
>Richard

As has been discussed, wxPython will probably never give the level of
aesthetic
control that Richard desires (and he has valid reasons for wanting it)
Ironically, on Windows the wxPython client looks even worse, and is
quite unstable.

Proposal: that Richard's existing VB client is modified to access the
GNUMed database. Probably it should use XML-RPC to talk to Python
"business objects". This allows us to reuse much of the existing
(well, will exist) Python code in both clients (Plus PalmOS, Web,
whatever that are later written)

The major problem is that VB is a propretiary language (as well as its
design problems). An open compiler is under development
(http://www.go-mono.com/mbas.html) but not usable. However, we accept
that most users will use a commerical OS (at least on the desktop)

Obviously the existing client remains a 'reference' client for all
platforms,
but geared towards Linux/Mac (where the exact appearance of widgets is
set at the system-lvel, not the application).  

I have no desire to dilute the "freeness" of gnumed, if people feel this
is wrong in prinicple, then forget it.

Ian